Compressed air systems are used in a wide variety of applications to power a wide variety of devices, such as spray or paint guns in a compressed air painting system, for example. In order to prevent damage to air powered devices, such as through corrosion, for example, or to prevent adversely affecting processes, such as contaminating paint in a spray painting process, for example, the compressed air is dried and other contaminants removed prior to being used.
Air drying systems, including regenerative air drying systems, have been developed for such purposes. Regenerative air drying systems pass air through a desiccant material which removes moisture from the compressed air, with the desiccant material being able to be dried, or regenerated, and reused. Such systems typically employ more than one desiccant container so that one container can continue to provide dry air while the desiccant material in the other container is being regenerated. While such systems are effective at drying air, they employ complex systems for switching between the desiccant containers and have complicated piping and valve systems that produce large pressure losses in the system and make system expansion difficult.